Joel 2:12–27

Rend Your Heart

¹²“Even now,” declares the Lord,

“return^g to me with all your heart,^h

with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

¹³Rend your heartⁱ

and not your garments.^j

Return^k to the Lord your God,

for he is gracious and compassionate,^l

slow to anger and abounding in love,^m

and he relents from sending calamity.ⁿ

¹⁴Who knows? He may turn^o and relent^p

and leave behind a blessing^q—

grain offerings and drink offerings^r

for the Lord your God.

¹⁵Blow the trumpet^s in Zion,^t

declare a holy fast,^u

call a sacred assembly.^v

¹⁶Gather the people,

consecrate^w the assembly;

bring together the elders,^x

gather the children,

those nursing at the breast.

Let the bridegroom^y leave his room

and the bride her chamber.

¹⁷Let the priests, who minister^z before the Lord,

weep^a between the portico and the altar.^b

Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.

Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,^c

a byword^d among the nations.

Why should they say among the peoples,

‘Where is their God?^e’ ”

The Lord’s Answer

¹⁸Then the Lord was jealous^f for his land

and took pity^g on his people.

¹⁹The Lord replied^a to them:

“I am sending you grain, new wine^h and olive oil,ⁱ

enough to satisfy you fully;^j

never again will I make you

an object of scorn^k to the nations.

²⁰“I will drive the northern horde^l far from you,

pushing it into a parched and barren land;

its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea

and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea.

And its stench^m will go up;

its smell will rise.”

Surely he has done great things!

²¹Do not be afraid,ⁿ land of Judah;

be glad and rejoice.^o

Surely the Lord has done great things!^p

²²Do not be afraid, you wild animals,

for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.^q

The trees are bearing their fruit;

the fig tree^r and the vine^s yield their riches.^t

²³Be glad, people of Zion,

rejoice^u in the Lord your God,

for he has given you the autumn rains

because he is faithful.^v

He sends you abundant showers,^w

both autumn^x and spring rains,^y as before.

²⁴The threshing floors will be filled with grain;

the vats will overflow^z with new wine^a and oil.

²⁵“I will repay you for the years the locusts^b have eaten^c—

the great locust and the young locust,

the other locusts and the locust swarm^b—

my great army^d that I sent among you.

²⁶You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,^e

and you will praise^f the name of the Lord your God,

who has worked wonders^g for you;

never again will my people be shamed.^h

²⁷Then you will knowⁱ that I am in Israel,

that I am the Lord^j your God,

and that there is no other;

never again will my people be shamed.^k